Yes? Dexcom? You have a question?

"Oh, I see you have several questions. Three, in fact. Well let's just hold each other close and see if that helps, okay?"

BEEEEEEEEEP! SENSOR FAILED

"Oh dear. That's not good. Okay, since we just stuck this one in, let's try it again, okay?" Clicks a few buttons to restart sensor.Sighs. "Yes, Dexcom? You have three questions again?"

I hate, hate, hate when Dexcom sensors don't queue up. I don't often have this problem, but when I do, it makes me go completely and utterly berserk. Putting a new sensor in doesn't hurt, usually, but it's not the highlight of my week, so having to peel off a sensor that's only a few hours old and stick myself with a new one makes my head explode with frustration.

(Am I the only one who pictures the Dexcom sensors questions as a long, drawn-out game of Marco Polo? Where the receiver is hollering out "MARCO!" in the form of those infuriating question marks, never answered with a "POLO!" of any kind? Maybe the sensor gives up because it's lonely.)

I gave this one a lot of tries (as you can see from the photo), but sometimes you have to tell technology to go screw and start over.

Comments

My daughter has one, and I fight with it regularly. I find myself talking to it frequently as well. My favorites so far are the enter not one, but two BG's - but only if it is late at night, because no matter when the sensor fails or when we put it in, it apparently seems to only want the start up bg's at midnight. Or later.

Lately it has been doing this great new thing where the display light goes out, but the button lights stay on. VERY handy when you are trying to read what it is telling you, you know, like "enter start up bg's" and it of course is midnight - not just any midnight - the darkest midnight on record since last night.

Totally! for some reason the ??? is incredibly frustrating to me too! I actually take breaks from my Dex after having a fight with it just to get a break. At the moment I love mine but about a month ago I almost stopped using it altogether (b/c it was crazy off the whole time!). I heard that if you insert it for 24 hrs. before you "start sensor" than it has time enough to calibrate and wetten enough to not give ???, but who knows really. I also heard drinking a full glass of water about 20 min. before insert helps too. These are just ideas but I know my Dex will be full of ?'s once again sometime. I was also told that the 2bgs should only be entered when you are currently "stable" and don't plan on eating for a half hr....but how often are we in a position like that?...really.
Great post! Thanks!

It bugs when I get the "weak signal" message on my Medtronic. Really guys, you can't connect even though you are only maybe five inches away from each other? I find myself placing my pump right on the sensor and yelling (in a threatening tone) "READ IT!"

Based on your relationship with Dexcom - do you have any inside lines on testing out what they may have around the corner? I've had the medtronic CGM but literally just stopped using it as I felt the product wasn't mature/reliable enough to be considered user friendly.
I'm particularly excited for any CGM that may hook up with a smart phone :)

We tried the minimed cgms and felt like such failures because it just didn't work for us. When our daughter said no more I had to back off. At the beginning of the summer she said she wanted another cgms. A few weeks ago we starting using dexcom... it is literally night and day between the products and she absolutely loves her Dexi.

My husband has used a Dexcom over 16 months. He wore a Medtronic for just a short period of time and we did not like it at all. A couple of weeks ago he insterted a new one and the readings were way off all week. Sometimes it was 150 off! When it took it out at the end of the time, the end was bent. He had inserted it higher up on his abdomen and we think it was too close to his ribs. That is why it worked at times but was way off most of the time. The cost is totally ours because he is on Medicare. They are still considering it experimental. The cost is really a strain on us but we have not choice. He has problems detecting lows. I hate to think how often he would be in the hospital er without it. He drives some but that is a real concern for us. Any suggestions or insights into Medicare covering the cost?

I've posted this before, but Dexcom is amazing. It is uncanny how on it is --- most of the time. I actually get frequent ???'s, usually happens about once every 2 boxes (8 sensors). To echo posts above, my Dex usually fails at night and I am really annoyed every time. However, it is a small price to pay for amazing peace of mind. And, every time a sensor fails, they replace it no questions asked. Even at the beginning of my CGM days when the failed sensors were all my fault, aka "user error".

I get very frustrated with my Medtronic CGM often, but I still feel that the benefits are outweighing the bad for me, making it worth the hassle. I was diagnosed T1 @ 12yrs old (11 years ago), but did injections until Feb. of this year. My A1C has overall pretty good. However since the pump and CGM I've had an A1C of 5.2 for the last 9 mos and my A1C at my appointment today was 4.7! I couldn't do it without the CGM, so for now I'll take the frustration and deal with it for a resulting 4.7!!

I wonder where everyone is putting their sensors and if that affects the accuracy/reliability? Don't get me wrong we do get ??? once in a while and we do get a number that is way off from a finger poke once in a while but for the most part it's pretty accurate and pretty reliable. I LOVE my daughters Dexcom! She just turned 5 and is JUST starting to detect her lows (has caught maybe 2 herself in the last month) and so I really rely on it to let me know what's happening. We use her belly for her sets and so we put the sensors in her bottom. I wonder if that makes a difference???

I would just like to point out to any prospective CGM users to TEST DRIVE BOTH!!!

Although both technologies are similar, the actual way it determines your reading internally is different (Dexcom gets completely hosed by Tylenol while MiniMed does not).

Having used MiniMed for 6 months, Dexcom for years, and MiniMed a while ago for a one month study, I can definitely say Dexcom works better for me - but I have met PWDs with just the opposite experience.

Probably a body chemistry thing - but if at all possible try each for a week or two before actually purchasing one!

When I have called Dexcom about this very problem, I've been told not to restart the same sensor--just take it off and put on a new one. I hesitated to do this given that they cost me $25 each, but Dex has always replaced bad sensors. Just be sure to keep the wrapper so you'll have the lot number.

I've been with my Dexcom a week now and am very disillusioned. The sensor is so off from my meter, it's ridiculous. Given a 20% allowance either way, even at 150, that means 30 points either way, or 60-point range total. That range makes a HUGE difference on what I do. If I'm 180 or I'm 120. The alarm went off in the night at 49. I checked with my meter - I was 98, perfectly fine for the rest of the night. I checked after eating a little pound cake and bolusing appropriately. After 2 hours, the sensor showed 268; my meter showed 198. This is no good for me, if it can't detect numbers better than that. I don't care what the arrows show if they are based on faulty numbers. I'm so discouraged - ready to give up. Such high hopes dashed.